NEED TO CATCH up? The Journal brings you a round-up of today’s news.

IRELAND

Gardaí at the site of a search for the body of a 7-year-old boy in Donabate. Rollingnews Rollingnews

• The CEO of Tusla said that the organisation will conduct wellbeing checks on 38,000 children after a request from the Minister for Children.
• The row over the continuous delay to the opening of the New Children’s Hospital reignited after Minister for Health Jennifer Caroll MacNeill told reporters that they should “ask BAM”, the contractor, what the new opening date will be.
• School principals voiced their frustration at the lack of support and guidance from the Department of Education and representative bodies during the ongoing strike by secretaries and caretakers.
• Police in Northern Ireland launched a murder investigation following the death of a man in Co Armagh.
• Comedy writer Graham Linehan’s online posts about a transgender activist were “oppressive” and “vindictive”, a UK court heard.
• A second nest of deadly Asian hornets was reportedly found in Co Cork.
• The number of prisoners sleeping on mattresses on floors in Irish jails rose by more than 150% last year.

INTERNATIONAL

Some of the leaders of countries in the coalition of the willing during a meeting in Paris today. Alamy Stock Photo Alamy Stock Photo

#UKRAINE: French President Emmanuel Macron announced that 26 countries had agreed to support Ukraine militarily and provide security guarantees in the event of a ceasefire or peace deal with Russia.

#PORTUGAL: Police in Portugal released some information about the people who died in a railcar accident in Lisbon yesterday.

#EU: A top official broke with the European Commission’s position on Israel’s war on Gaza, describing it as a genocide. 

#RIP The iconic fashion designer Giorgio Armani died aged 91.

PARTING SHOT

This is an exclusive extract from ‘The Lie Of The Land – A Game Plan for Ireland in the Climate Crisis’ by John Gibbons, which is published today by Penguin Sandycove and is available to order.

EARTH HAS LONG been described as a Goldilocks planet, with climatic and atmospheric conditions uniquely suited to life. If Earth is such a planet – not too hot, not too cold – then Ireland, with its temperate climate, is a Goldilocks country.

By an accident of geography, Ireland exists in a climatic sweet spot, sheltered from the very worst extremes of heat- waves, hurricanes, droughts and deluges.

But Goldilocks is dying. The long era of uncanny global climatic stability has ended; the climate has changed more radically in the past half-century than at any other time since the end of the last Ice Age.

To read John Gibbons’ full Voices article, click here.